NARRATIO QUARTET

Bringing rhetorical flair and expressive depth to Beethoven’s string quartets is all in a day’s work for the Narratio Quartet, a hugely talented ensemble who’ve been wowing classical music lovers for the better part of two decades. 

Having completed the full Beethoven cycle on multiple occasions, more recent times have seen the quartet taking a dive into different waters, adding works by Brahms, Schubert and Mendelssohn to their impressive repertoire. 

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Wednesday 22 April

MAXWELL QUARTET

First encountering one another while playing in youth orchestras in Scotland, the all-male Maxwell Quartet often perform classical repertoire and new music alongside folk-inspired work. 

Although most readily associated with the music of Haydn, the boys are here presenting a concert featuring pieces by three other classical composers: Beethoven (String Quartet in A major, Op18 No5), Prokofiev (String Quartet No2, Op92 in F Major ‘On Kabardinian themes’) and Dvorak (String Quartet No13 in G major, Op106). 

A selection of Scottish folk music completes the evening’s programme.  

Keele University, Staffordshire, Wednesday 22 April

CBSO: BRAHMS' GERMAN REQUIEM

It took Johannes Brahms three years to compose this stunning work, a large-scale piece - his longest-ever composition - for chorus, orchestra, a soprano and a baritone soloist. The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra here perform the work with the assistance of soprano Sophie Bevan (pictured) and baritone Gareth Brynmore John. 

The concert programme also features Purcell’s Funeral Music For Queen Mary. 

Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Thursday 23 April 

SHREWSBURY CANTATA CHOIR

Shrewsbury Cantata Choir are gearing up for their 40th-anniversary celebrations next year with four concerts across the rest of 2026.

The first of these sees the choir teaming up with Shrewsbury Sinfonia to present a performance of Antonín Dvořák’s Stabat Mater, a setting of a medieval Latin poem which describes the suffering of the Virgin Mary at the Crucifixion. 

St Chad’s Church, Shrewsbury, Saturday 25 April

EX CATHEDRA: THE GARDEN OF LOVE

[Our concert] celebrates Spring and the season of beauty and love with a programme of ravishing music to delight the senses; a ‘grand tour’ of earthly delights.”

So says Ex Cathedra’s founder & conductor Jeffrey Skidmore, in talking about the programme of ‘evocative imagery and shimmering harmony’ which the ensemble is performing in this two-hour-long concert. Featured works include Claude Le Jeune’s Revecy venir du Printans (from Le printemps) and a world premiere from Bobbie-Jane Gardner, who takes inspiration from Daisaku Ikeda’s concept of ‘human flowers’. 

St Peter’s Church, Wolverhampton, Saturday 25 April

ISATA KANNEH-MASON

“I’m striving to change the fact that there’s a big lack of diversity in classical music,” says pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, whose studies at the Royal Academy of Music began at the tender age of 10, a couple of years after her first public performance. “Music should be for everyone, and my aim is to bring music to all kinds of people. I think it’s important to have a variety of role models in the classical music world.”

Festival Theatre, Malvern, Sunday 26 April

FRANCESCA MASSEY ORGAN RECITAL

Birmingham-born Francesca Massey held several prestigious organ scholarships before becoming assistant director of music at Peterborough Cathedral, sub-organist at Durham Cathedral and director of music at Rochester Cathedral. With four critically acclaimed solo recordings to her name, she here displays her sublime talent by performing a programme that features works by Bach, Dupré, Whitlock, Farrington and Middelschulte. 

Birmingham Town Hall, Monday 27 April